Events

Vampire Burials

How To Bury Vampires

With Halloween right around the corner, we thought it might be fun to write about vampire burials. Just how were these supernatural figures buried? Our research led us to a website that featured an article by Siobhan O’Shea about 10 examples of how witches, vampires, and zombies have historically been laid to rest.

We want to mention three of them here:

Volcano Vampires

It was believed that the deceased suspected of being vampires while alive were exiled to the Greek Island of Kammeni, near the Island of Santorini. Reports suggest that family members would place a small silver cross and two pieces of wood into the person’s mouth. Their hands would be tied with rope dampened by holy water.

While the people thought that the rich sulfur of the volcanic island could return these people to life. However, they were not able to cross the salty Aegean Sea.

Vampire of Venice

A 16th century female “vampire” in Venice was discovered by researchers. A brick had been jammed between her jaws to prevent her feeding on victims of a plague. She was discovered in a mass plague grave and DNA analysis revealed that she was European. Her age was somewhere between 61-71 years which was very old for that time.

How had she escaped death when people around here were dying at a much younger age? It was believed that the devil gave women magical powers that included the ability to trick death.

Bulgarian Vampires

These vampires, it was rumored, were bad people who had come back to life again. To assure that didn’t happen, someone was charged with the task of lancing the dead bodies with stakes.

The wooden or iron rod was supposed to attach them to their graves. In this way others were kept safe from their terror.